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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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My only concern: Software IS Abstract | 179 comments | Create New Account

Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.

My only concern: Software IS Abstract

Authored by: PolR on Saturday, March 16 2013 @ 01:14 PM EDT

Explaining why software is abstract is easy. Explaining why a patent claim
involving software is abstract is hard.

The problem is not the abstractness of software. The problem is the abstractness
of patent claims. Lawyers write their claims using words that let them argue
they are patenting hardware "configured" to run the software and not
the software itself. Then they say the hardware is not abstract and it is
patentable.

When we say software is abstract, the lawyers answer "yes but the claim is
not patenting this abstract software."

Notice how the lawyers' answer is not "software is concrete." They
don't say"you are wrong to say it is abstract." The answer is
"the claim is patenting hardware and this is not software."

This is the real issue. Arguing that software is abstract doesn't help unless we
can counter this answer.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

My only concern: Software IS Abstract - Authored by: Wol on Saturday, March 16 2013 @ 04:51 PM EDT
- My only concern: Software IS Abstract - Authored by: PolR on Saturday, March 16 2013 @ 05:57 PM EDT
  - My only concern: Software IS Abstract - Authored by: Wol on Saturday, March 16 2013 @ 07:10 PM EDT

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